Merry and Bright
by cafeanna
Summary: Christmas Eve with the Todoroki-Shimura household. The highs, the lows, the weird Christmas tree. It's never a dull moment.


**title: **merry and bright

**genre: **romance / fuff

**pairings:** shigaraki tomura | shimura tenko/todoroki natsuo, vague-dabihawks

**warnings: **strained family relationships, crack, and uncareful planning

* * *

It is the day before Christmas when Natsuo wakes up to the sound of his spouse jumping out of bed, screaming.

As this is not a normal occurrence, Natsuo falls out of bed, smacking his forehead against the nightstand as he does so. He spends a moment, withering in a half-asleep haze of exhaustion and pain before he can even begin to gauge what is happening.

Before he can do that, however, Tenko is haloed in the light of the hallway, his hair a mess and his rumbled sleeping shirt sagging on his shoulders. "Himiko." Is all he says before he slams the door again, leaving him alone in ominous silence and darkness.

Natsuo takes several minutes to calm his pounding heartrate and tries not to consider whatever monstrosity Toga Himiko, their sort of-neighbor and personal assistant, may have caused so early in the morning.

By the time he climbs back into bed, nestled among the thousand thread count sheets, he can only let his worries fall away as sleep carries him back to the land of—

Then, his alarm goes off.

Some mornings are just like that.

* * *

It's not that they don't celebrate Christmas, per se. They're not the type to have a part, or go to one. They don't travel because Tenko's anxiety gets bad around the holidays and crowds just make them worse. But, neither of them really has any other family that they want to celebrate with.

Sure, Natsuo has his siblings and his mother, but they don't really have that buddy-buddy family relationship thanks to their upbringing. Fuyumi has her husband and kids on the other side of the country. Shouto is still in school abroad. Dabi has his boyfriend.

Tenko has his adoptive father and a handful of friends from work, but no one he really wants to see.

The holidays make everyone spread out, so they often just spend them with each other.

* * *

"So, why wasn't I able to walk past my living room this morning?"

Natsuo has found himself a nice corner in the hospital cafeteria. Dare he say, his own corner. Where he can have his back against the wall while he video calls Tenko on his laptop. Natsuo thinks it's a great setup—and a great way to catch up since the holidays are always so crazy—but Tenko has other ideas.

"I really wish you would have lunch in your office," Tenko shouts as he slams around their kitchen. He has been doing this since he jumped on the call. "I can barely hear you with all that background noise."

Natsuo fiddles with his Airpods to shift Tenko's background noise and smiles. It's the kind of smile that the nurses call 'charming'.

"It's because you're not talking into the phone, babe."

Tenko shoots him a withering glare over his shoulder and lets it hold for a moment. It's the kind of dead-on stares that people would call 'freaky' or 'vaguely homicidal.' It's the kind of stare that made his homophobic father shut the hell up when Tenko threw it at him, so Natsuo is mostly immune. "Babe, c'mon, you love me."

Tenko snorts. "You have lettuce in your teeth, you himbo."

"Hey, I'm the himbo you married." Natsuo flips off the camera with his wedding ring, and makes sure to stealthily lower it when his coworkers pass by. He takes a swig of water before clearing his throat. "So, what're you doing? You and Himiko still working on the decorations and all that?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Tenko ducks out of screen to check the cabinets under the kitchen island, only the silver fluff of his ponytail visible over the lip of the granite. "I don't understand why we hired her when all she does is move shit arou—there we go!"

Tenko rises back into screen and unceremoniously sets (slams) two new-looking cookie sheets onto the countertop. Natsuo's ears sing with the noise.

"What'cha doing, babe?" Natsuo asks, concerned.

"I'm being festive." He says and it's around this time, with Tenko finally facing the camera fully, that Natsuo gets a good look at the sweater that his spouse is currently wearing.

Not one to slouch around the house in pajamas all day, Tenko has a large collection of hoodies and sweaters that he divides, through some logic, into work clothes and sleeping clothes. He has quite a collection spanning one of their walk-in closets probably meant to house designer brands and jewelry.

This one is new. It's a huge cable-knit sweater. It's a Christmas green, a deep pine color, with big, bold-type red letters _I PUT OUT FOR SANTA _stitched across the chest wreathed in candy canes and cookies.

Natsuo taps the button on his laptop that takes a screenshot.

"Ah, baby, I didn't know you got a new sugar daddy."

Tenko stares at him for several seconds, confused, until Natsuo tugs at the collar of his own shirt. His expression shifts, and then it registers. Tenko lets out a long sigh and looks up at the ceiling. "I asked Himiko to get us some holiday sweaters. You got one too."

Natsuo grins, ignoring this. "So, I am being replaced? I had no idea you were into older men."

Tenko's mouth quirks, the way it does when he's getting into their play. But his husband is just as sarcastic and vitriolic as him, so he thinks nothing of it when Tenko shrugs and says, "I thought it would be good practice. You're not getting any younger. I'll have to get used to saggy, old-man flesh soon."

Natsuo gasps in mock-horror. "I am twenty-nine! I'm not an old man!"

"Mh," Tenko leans against the counter, chin posed on his fist. He is smirking, just a little, a little corner kick to his mouth. "Remember that gray hair we found last week?"

"It wasn't gray!" Natsuo asserts and, after doing a primary sweep of the cafeteria around him, he leans down. "And besides, what makes you think I'll take you back after you cheated on me?"

"Who else is going to put up with you?"

"Fair point." Natsuo nods and then grins. "I would have to train someone new and we all know how long it took you before you could—"

"Oh-kay!" Himiko jumps into frame from stage-left. Her eyes are wide and frantic. "I'm saving dirty-talk for marriage, so if you guys could just—"

"Where the holy fuck _were _you hiding, you ingrate!"

* * *

Natsuo may have gone a little overboard with gifts this year.

Although Himiko is usually Tenko's personal assistant, she often gracefully extends her services to running him lunch and picking up the dry cleaning when he forgets, so he felt compelled to get her something. Then, his mother who spends her Christmases in the Alps with her mother, on retreat. And his estrange siblings because they get him things too.

Then, of course, Tenko whom he would love to spoil like no other.

If Tenko would let him.

Tenko had a _strange _upbringing and doesn't take gifting too lightly. He says that because his father (the adoptive one) would hold gifts over his head if he acted up, threaten to take them away and had he not already done so much for him?

Still, Tenko accepts gifts, but he doesn't make it easy. He'll buy whatever he needs so the new gaming screen and chair Natsuo had been planning were a no go. But, those were necessities and business expenses. So, Natsuo often opts for gifts Tenko would not think of.

Such as, a projector of the night sky, an exact star map of where they were when they took their first trip together; a pair of kitty-cat ear headphones that Natsuo knows would look cute on stream; and two VIP tickets to the next gaming convention next month, the one Natsuo had purposefully misplaced Tenko's credit card for.

He's a good husband.

* * *

Natsuo finds out, much later, that Tenko's earlier jackknife out of bed had been about the Christmas tree situation.

Although they go through this every year, the commercialism, the traditionalist building blocks of the nuclear family, and Natsuo's allergies—they had decided to get a tree this year. However, Tenko is a young professional who works from home and Natsuo working his late hours, its difficult. So, likewise, they have Himiko handle it.

And Himiko does.

Natsuo notes, with a bit more level headedness than usual, that Tenko may be onto something when he questions hiring her. "Well?" She grins expectantly, batting her lashes at them. "What do you think?"

The living room is awash with Christmas décor. Every inch covered in twinkling lights, tasteful glass snowflakes, warm cozy decorations vaguely reminiscent of a Hallmark movie Christmas set.

But, Himiko had gotten them a fake tree, as per request, and had decorated it with the Todoroki family ornaments, as per request, but—

"Is there any particular _reason _why it's a rainbow?" Natsuo asks and looks to his spouse, who looks too tired to properly go off like he did this morning.

Natsuo studies the cone shaped thing from red to orange to yellow to green—

It is a bustling, furry pride flag of a thing. His mother's classic, hand-blown glass ornaments look estranged and prim on the tacky _thing _pluming out of their silver and white living room. A lot of the house follows a similar aesthetic, silver and white, accents of brown or gold, no overuse or overzealous colors.

The pride flag Christmas tree is the loudest thing in the room.

"They didn't make them in bi-flag colors." Himiko says with a shrug. As if _that's _what's wrong with it.

"This is pan-erasure." Tenko grumbles under his breath and twists from side to side, eye the hideously loud and festive thing. After a moment, he glances at Natsuo again, brow raised. "What'd you think?"

It is at this point, after a long shift and being met with an annoyed Tenko at the door, Natsuo is too caught up in the humor of it all to really be angry—or, offended, should he be offended? It was cute how Tenko nearly dragged him out of the car and into the living room, pointing at the thing as if Himiko were one of the cats who clawed up a slipper or a chair, not someone on their payroll.

"I like it!"

Himiko squeals. "I knew it! I knew it!" She throws her arms around the both of them in an unprompted, but not unexpected hug. "I knew you guys would like it! It's so boring in here, you needed a little pop of color, ya know?"

* * *

By midnight, they are curled up in their living room, staring at the colorful tree as it casts a kaleidoscope of colors up the pallid walls. "It's starting to grow on me." Tenko admits, taking a long sip of eggnog. It's the second time he's said it since they sat to watch _A Christmas Chronicle. _

Natsuo has to agree. They don't really peacock being a couple often enough, especially not in public. The giant rainbow of a thing is a perfect beacon to the neighbors to stop trying to set the two of them up with legible daughters or nieces or aunts. A nice middle finger to their white-bread neighborhood.

"So, we don't have to fire Himiko?"

"Not today." Tenko hums. "I already gave her a Christmas bonus and told her she didn't have to come back until New Year's."

"So, she'll be here tomorrow to open gifts with us?"

"Hm, probably. I told her to give me some peace until the twenty-sixth, at least." Tenko hums and curls around him, snug under their weighted blanket. "Kurogiri might stop by then too. He's back from his soul-searching journey, wants to talk shop. We might get lunch."

"Yeah, Dabi and Hawks might stop by too. They're being oddly domestic."

They talk awhile longer about family and plans, parts of their day they forgot to mention, funny stories, inconveniences, as watching the fireplace burn down, the two of them slowly drift off. When Tenko turns off the tv, but doesn't move, Natsuo knows he'll have a sore neck tomorrow, laying like this with Tenko and him pretzelled around each other, but he is so warm and he feels so at peace.

"Merry Crisis." Tenko mumbles drowsily.

"Merry Chrysler." Natsuo mumbles back.

It's everything he ever wanted.

* * *

happy holidays! 

mine were good, but i left my laptop at my apartment so i could spend time with the family and i didn't finish this in time to make something out of it. i really just wanted a com of little holiday-esque moments, but i didn't want to overthink it. i have other shigaraki/natsuo content i want to work on. i just wanted to send my resume out there, ya know?

also, the idea of himiko as their PA is too funny to me.

-cafeanna


End file.
